Weight loss: Six ways your breakfast is SABOTAGING your weight loss - what best to eat

WEIGHT LOSS can be a minefield, with so many diet plans and advice having contradicting methods. A nutritionist has now revealed how your breakfast could be sabotaging your weight loss, and which is the best breakfast to eat.

Breakfast is a hotly debated topic when it comes to weight loss, with many dieters choosing not to eat it.

However, it is the most important meal of the day, believed to kick start the metabolism and provide the body with the energy it needs for the day ahead.

With the constant stream of conflicting health news, it is important to ensure to start the day off right, with no guarantee a “healthy” breakfast will not turn into a high calorie sugar-filled disaster.

Nutritionist Sarah Flower reveals why breakfast could could be sabotaging weight loss efforts, and what is best to eat in order to lose weight.

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Weight loss: How your breakfast is sabotaging your weight loss - and the best breakfast for weight loss

Calorie counting

In Briton’s quest for calorie counting, the UK has seen a rise in what Sarah calls “Frankenstein foods; claiming to be low calorie and low fat".

In order to actually lose weight, the quality of the food over the calories needs to also be taken into consideration.

A diet of “real” food is the first and foremost change everyone should make in their quest for good health and this journey starts with the first meal of the day.

By avoiding processed foods, dieters are cutting out unnecessary sugars and unhealthy fats, replacing these with nutrient-rich food in its more natural state. So opt for fresh foods to start the day off right.

Deceiving labels

The rise in ‘No Added Sugar’ and ‘No Refined Sugar’ labels on the face of it, seems great, but they are in fact very deceiving. Food manufacturers have now tuned in to concerns about sugar and are using lots of tricks to convince Britons that their product is healthier.

Dates, dried fruit and fruit concentrates are often used but it is just a sideways step. The human body doesn’t differentiate between refined or unrefined sugars; it breaks them down in exactly the same way.

Breakfast is said to be the most important meal of the day, kickstarting on the metabolism (Image: Getty Images)

Honey, molasses, maple syrup, dates, coconut sugar, agave syrup – all contain high concentrates of sugar, causing a spike in blood sugars and therefore an insulin response, as well as delivering high levels of fructose.

A “natural” date-based breakfast bar will perpetuate cravings, raise blood sugars and flood the liver with fructose in the same way that normal sugar will do.

Breaking the fast the wrong way

Research has shown intermittent fasting can actually increase weight loss as well as allow the body to repair and rejuvenate.

Intermittent fasting is very simple; eat the last meal of the day and then fast until lunchtime, ensuring there is around 16 hours of fasting. Doing it this way means being asleep through most of the fast.

For those fasting over breakfast, stick to liquids such as Skinny Coffee Club’s instant range (available at Holland & Barrett). It contains a blend of ground coffee, green coffee bean extract, green tea extract, spirulina, Garcinia Cambogia and Siberian ginseng, all of which work together to help speed up the metabolism, reduce appetite and burn more fat.

Britons know they should eat more fruit and vegetables, but packing fruit into breakfast can cause a spike in blood sugar, with sugar being associated with a wide range of health problems including fatty liver disease, increased visceral fat, increased triglycerides and switching off of our leptin response (the hormone that signals our brain when we are full).

Eating a whole fruit will mean consuming fibre at the same time, which slows the digestion of the fructose down.

However, drinking fruit in fruit juice or smoothie form, means eliminating the fibre that needs to be broken down and therefore a high concentration of fructose floods the liver. Suddenly a fresh fruit morning smoothie contains more sugar than a glass of cola.

Fearing fat

For years on end fat was seen as the enemy, with hundreds of “fat-free" products flooding the shelves - however, fat-fuelled breakfasts can boost the metabolism and weight loss by keeping hunger at bay.

Unsaturated fats, specifically, help keep cholesterol in check and the heart healthy, too. Sarah recommends incorporating natural fats from vegetables, nuts, seeds, and fish into breakfast, just be sure to avoid all man-made fats and seed oils.

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With Britons living increasingly busy lives, it can be hard to factor in time for breakfast, but grabbing an easy “on-the-go” breakfast can actually spur on cravings throughout the day.

In order to consume a weight-loss friendly breakfast, plan ahead and prepare quick breakfasts. Try making scrambled eggs, or cook up a big batch of sugar-free granola on the weekend and then store it in a jar so it lasts for a long time.

Porridge oats and savoury muffins are also quick and easy to make, try filling them with nutritious ingredients such as spinach, courgette and cheese.